Inuits can 'bearly' hunt

Quotas in place to slow the fall in polar bear numbers in Greenland.

Inuit hunter Hjelmer Hammeken spotted a ringed seal near its breathing hole on the Greenland ice. In his white camouflage, he slowly crept towards it then lay down in the snow and waited.

When the right moment came, Hammeken tapped his feet together. The seal lifted its head to look where the noise was coming from and the hunter fired.

He butchered the animal there and then, eating some of its liver while it was still warm, as his ancestors have done for centuries the hunter's reward.

Such scenes are common around the hugely isolated Inuit community of Ittoqqortoormiit, close to Scoresby Sound, the world's biggest fjord on the frozen east coast of Greenland.

All the men hunt in this colourful little settlement of 350 souls. While only the professionals track polar bears, everyone hunts seats, narwhals and Arctic musk ox.

But for the past two decades, climate change and hunting quotas have been threatening the livelihood on which Inuit families have long survived.

Hammeken, 66, is a legend in Greenland, its greatest polar bear hunter. AFP followed him and other professional Inuit hunters for several days during the hunting season. He killed seven this year to add to his tally of 319 over the last half-century.